The European Investment Bank has signed a EUR 90 million loan for the Province of Rome. This finance, made available for a period of 25 years, will help to support the investment provided for in the Province’s 2007-2009 development plan. It will focus in particular on: the transport sector in the vicinity of the capital, including improved access to the port of Civitavecchia, which is part of a priority trans-European network (TEN) project; operations to upgrade the infrastructure of some 300 secondary schools; and urban regeneration and cultural heritage schemes.
This loan, which comes under the EIB’s activities to support the development programmes of local and regional authorities in Italy, extends an earlier line of credit made available to the Province of Rome in July 2004.
The finance contract was initialled by Dario Scannapieco, EIB Vice-President responsible for financing operations in Italy, Greece, Cyprus, Malta and the western Balkans, and Nicola Zingaretti, President of the Province of Rome.
As part of the operations planned in the transport sector, the EIB loan will also be able to finance the feasibility study and initial phase of the “Corridoio Fiumicino – Fiumicino Porto – Ostia”.
This corridor is part of the “Piano di Bacino” included in the Province of Rome’s regional plan, which provides for 11 public transport “corridors”, modal interchange parking and measures to improve safety and the state of the roads and improve traffic flow.
The operations to improve the secondary school infrastructure, which will benefit some 170 000 students, meets the growing demand for institutes that provide access to university.
The Province of Rome, which accounts for 8.3% of Italy’s gross domestic product, covers an area of 53 km and has a population of 3.8 million.